Manufacturing

The fashion industry now has a powerful tool to map its complex sustainability challenges. The Fashion Impact Toolkit, developed by Global Fashion Agenda and Deloitte, catalogues around 3,000 impacts across the textile value chain. Designed for strategic planning and accountability, it equips companies to track, assess, and address environmental and social harms from fibre to end-of-life.

Despite rising price competition and shifting global trade dynamics, Swiss textile machinery continues to command global respect for its precision and innovation. In this exclusive interview, Davide Maccabruni, the new President of the Swiss Textile Machinery Association, discusses how the sector is evolving through sustainability, digital integration, and region-specific strategies to maintain its global leadership.

A new 2025 analysis of fashion industry climate strategies has found that leading brands like Adidas, H&M Group, and Shein continue to fall short of meaningful action. The report by NewClimate Institute  cited weak electrification plans, overreliance on fossil gas and biomass, and a refusal to move away from the fast fashion model.

A new study from the University of Leeds highlights the regulatory gaps undermining eco-credential standards in the UK textile and fashion industry. It calls for stronger alignment with circular economy principles, enhanced consumer-focused policies, and better reporting systems to improve sustainability across the entire product lifecycle in the post-Brexit era.

The first edition of the Textiles Recycling Expo 2025 in Brussels brought together innovators, brands, policymakers, and recyclers to accelerate circularity in textiles. With cutting-edge recycling technologies on display and calls for robust EU policy frameworks, the event spotlighted the need to scale solutions through business model innovation, financing, and regulatory clarity.

Bangladesh’s garment industry faces mounting pressure to decarbonise amid regulatory shifts and brand climate commitments. Yet, financing, energy infrastructure, and governance gaps hinder progress. A new Apparel Impact Institute report has outlined the critical enablers required for a just transition, from policy reform to capacity building. AII President and CEO Lewis Perkins throws light on programmatic investment and long-term collaboration to future-proof the sector in Bangladesh.

At EU Green Week 2025, leaders reaffirmed that circular economy is not just green policy—it’s Europe’s competitive strategy. From the upcoming Circular Economy Act to fast fashion regulations, the EU aims to reduce resource dependency, boost innovation, and scale circular systems. Now, the focus shifts from ambition to implementation.

Recent court rulings have struck down President Trump's sweeping tariff regime, challenging executive authority over trade policy. The US Court of International Trade found Trump exceeded his powers under emergency legislation, sparking immediate appeals and creating uncertainty across global markets and supply chains.

The UK Government has been urged to adopt a variable EPR system to support and safeguard textiles manufacturing businesses by designing and selling more circular products, and by offering circular services like repair and reuse.

As the fashion industry struggles to firm up a roadmap towards decarbonisation, one of the players that has been pro-active in trying to clean up its supply chain is the H&M Group. Kim Hellström, Senior Sustainability Manager, Climate at the Group speaks at length about the challenges in decarbonising the supply chain.